Thursday, August 13, 2009

One of my favorite places ever is Gulf Shores, AL. We are headed there soon!!

But my other two VERY favorite places I've been are NYC and Kauai.

In May 2004 - I went to NYC with 3 of my best friends. My friend Megan actually won the trip so everything was free but our food. We went to 2 Broadway shows and did all the sightseeing stuff. Here are Laurie and I in front of Lady Liberty!
I love this picture with the city behind us. This is Laurie, Hillary, me and Megan.
We discovered H&M on that trip and we literally went every day. We would buy a bunch of stuff and go back to the hotel every night and have a style show and decide what we liked and didn't like and then take stuff back and start all over. It was so fun! Laurie and I were waiting to go in one morning. :-)
Hillary and me on the double decker bus tour of the city
This is one of my very favorite pictures of the four of us. I have it framed in my kitchen.
We ate at Tavern on the Green that night.
At the top of the Empire State Building
That was SUCH a fun trip. I want to go back SO badly!
And this is a little heaven on earth. Scott and I have been to Kauai twice and we love it. We stayed at the same hotel in the same room both times and this was our view out our window. Can you understand why we requested the same room the second time.
This is the night we ate a little hole in the wall restaurant and we were sitting literally 10 feet away from Pierce Brosnon and his family. Actually Pierce (James Bond) held the door open for us as we came in and I nearly passed out.
We tried to be very "bachelorette" and took a helicopter ride to see the island. Only on the show it seems so romantic and in reality we were both about to lose our breakfast and I had to keep my eyes closed and hold a barf bag most of the ride. ha! But this was the view when I opened my eyes.
This was coming up the climb from our favorite beach - Hideaways. It is very hard to get through - you have to climb down a cliff basically but it's so worth it - it was GORGEOUS! (I had to be very careful because I was pregnant with Harper at the time!)
We waited until the last morning to try and take pictures in front of our beach and it was so foggy - you could not see the mountains or view. Oh well - lesson learned.

Hopefully we will move to Kauai one day and you can all come visit us.

Now - show me your favorite vacations so we can all see where we want to visit next!!!

Oh, I *love* NYC!! We have been three times since we've been married. My best friend (I would have said "BFF" but didn't want to sound like an utter dork) lives in Manhattan, so we always have a place to stay. But now she has a baby and we have two, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to go with kids. First of all, it's a 13-hour drive (or an expensive flight b/c we'd have to pay for 3 or 4 tickets), and plus, I know it would be a *totally* different trip with kids, and I don't know that I'm ready to let go of the magic that lives in my memory. Is that dumb?

Oh, and we ate at Tavern on the Green one year and HAAAAATED it! It was so expensive (even at lunch) and pretensious (sp??), and the food wasn't even good! SAD!!

Gorgeous Hawaii pictures!!! We're about to go to Gulf Shores, too. We actually stay in Orange Beach. This is a great time of year to go..it's not as crowded, no jelly fish, and a little bit cooler. Have a great time!

Can't wait to visit! Where are you staying when you go to the Gulf? My mom's entire family(all my cousins, aunts, and uncles, and my gma&gpa) stayed in one of those beach houses, that my grandmother got to stay in for a week as a present for her retirement from her company. It's call Martinique On The Gulf. It was really cool, the house came with sand toys, and a golf cart that we could drive around! It was very cool!

I too was pregnant in Kauai--four months along with my first. Loved the trip. For the most part. But I should say, if the Napali Coast catamaran tour company says pregnant women should not cruise with them, for the love, please BELIEVE them :).

As my dad said (who was not pregnant, btw): "I haven't paid that much money to be that sick in a long time."

You are so dang cute...so photogenic...almost as much as Harper! :-)What hotel did you stay at in Kauai? Just gathering information for my future dream VaK!Thank you for sharing/blogging. I love reading about the paths other Jesus lovers walk!Continued Blessings

Love all your pictures Kelly! We lived in Jersey for 4 years and I LOVED going to the city for the weekends! Now that we are living in the midwest I go back to hang out with my best girlfriends! It is a great city!

I just recently moved back to Atlanta from Gulf Shores. Just a couple great places to visit since you are going soon. You may have already been to these places, but what the heck. One of my husband and my favorite restaurants is Jesse's in Magnolia Springs (straight down 98 and you will see signs)...being a southern girl you would really appreciate this place! Also, Fairhope, also down 98, is one of the cutest towns I have ever been to...Absolutely love this place! Tons of cute shopping, adorable bookstores, and yummy restaurants. Have fun on Vacation!

What a blast to see everyone's vacation pics!! You look so radiant and happy in all the photos- what a treasure to have such memories with your friends!! I so wish I had a special group of girlfriends like that, but I'm working on it :)

I too love NYC, especially as a girls trip! So fun! And H&M? One of the first stops I must make when I am in NYC!! I just saw a comment above mine that asks what H&M is...so sad.... Everyone should get to experience that greatness once! :)

your pictures are fabulous!!! so great to see everyone's beautiful vacation spots! great ideas for us. we want to have a 10year get away in a year and a half and love seeing all over through your blog!

i am having a problem posting the show us your life button, any ideas? only get a box with a red x on my blog. i've tried copy and paste a hundred times.

My family and I are going to Gulf Shores in exactly 22 days (Labor day wk). We go every year and LOVE it. We actually stay in Orange Beach. Hope you have fun on your trip. You look so cute in your trip to NY. I have always wanted to go...maybe one day!

My sister has two condos that are just a year or two old in Gulf Shores that she rents on West Beach Blvd. if you are ever interested! We go there often & it is Heavenly! One is a 3 bedroom & the other is a 2 bedroom.Hawaii is on my "someday!" list!

I live just 45 mins from Gulf Shore's...we are over that way often. You'll have to try Lulu's...I've heard nothing but great thing's, in fact we are planning a trip that way to eat there soon. It's near the Wharf which is a pretty cool place to hang out. Oh! and they have a build-a-bear shop there now...just in case you want to take Harper :)

I grew up in Hoboken, NJ, right across the river from that beautiful NY skyline. I love going to the Statue of Liberty, walking in NY, and just experiencing the city life. I wouldn't want to live there, it's just fun being from that part of the country.

I now live in England where I discovered H & M and I noticed on our most recent trip to NYC (back in November) that they also have H&M. How cool!

As far as Kauai goes, I want to go to anyplace in Hawaii. It's been a dream of mine. One day, Lord willing, our family will get there.

Kelly, thanks for hosting favorite vacation spots. I enjoyed your pictures of NYC and Hawaii and I'm so happy you love the Gulf Coast. That's where I live and I do love it so much and don't want to live anywhere else. However, I enjoyed posting about the mountains this week.

My husband ran into Mr. James Bond himself in Kauai too ... three years ago. His son was with him and was jumping around bushes pretending to shoot people with his fake gun using his hands -- TRUE STORY!!!